A Woman's Impression of the Philippines eBook

The first launch that came out after the doctor’s
brought a messenger from the Educational Department
with orders to us teachers to remain aboard till next
day, when a special launch would be sent for us.
So all day we watched our friends go down over the
side, and waved farewells to them, and made engagements
to meet on the Luneta. The launches and lighters
and cascos swarmed round us, the cargo derricks
groaned and screeched, the soldiers gathered up knapsack
and canteen and marched solemnly down the ladder.
Vessels steamed past us or anchored near us, while
we hung over the rail, gazing at Manila, so near and
yet so far. After dinner we betook ourselves to
the empty afterdeck and stared down the long promenade—­alas!
resembling the piazza of a very empty hotel!—­and
peopled it with the ghosts of those who late had sat
there. They had gone out of our lives after a
few brief days of idleness, but they would take up,
as we should, the work of building a nation in a strange
land and out of a reluctant people. Some were
fated to die of wounds, and some were stricken with
the pestilence. Most of them are still living,
moving from army post to army post. Some are
still toiling in the remotenesses of mountain villages;
others are dashing about Manila in the midst of its
feverish society. Some have gone to swell the
American colonies in Asiatic coast towns. A few
have shaken the dust of the Philippines forever from
their feet, and are seeking fame in the home land and
wooing fortune in the traffic of great cities or in
peaceful rural life. Some, perhaps, may read
these lines, and, reading, pause to give a tender
thought to the land which most Americans revile while
they are in it, but which they sentimentally regret
when they have left it.

Eight long years have slipped by since that night,
and in that time a passing-bell has tolled for the
Philippines which we found then. Who shall say
for many a year whether the change be for better or
for worse? But the change has come, and for the
sake of a glamour which overlay the quaint and moribund
civilization of the Philippines of that day I have
chronicled in this volume my singularly unadventurous
experiences.

The afterdeck was empty, and the promenade was the
haunt of ghosts, but across the circle of gloom we
could see a long oval of arc lights with thousands
of little glow-worms beneath, which we knew were not
glow-worms at all, but carriage lamps dashing round
the band stand; and as if he divined our sentimental
musings, the second steward took heart and not only
played but sang his favorite air from “Cavalleria.”

CHAPTER V

Our First Few Days in the City

The Pasig River, With Its Swarm of House-boats—­Through
Manila into the Walled City—­Our First Meal—­A
Walk and a Drive in Manila—­The Admirable
Policemen—­We Superintend the Preparation
of Quarters for Additional Teachers—­That
Artful Radcliffe Girl.